The Big Country

  I can't remember why I put The Big Country in my list of movies to watch, but as it started to roll I wondered how I could have ever avoided it. Gregory Peck? Charlton Heston? William Wyler? Epic western? Yeah, the cover art in Netflix was a bit of a joke (Peck standing at…

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Top Hat

I haven't seen much of Fred Astaire, and probably less of Ginger Rogers, so I view this as my introduction to the pair. And what I saw was actually quite fun, but a couple of healthy steps away from its reputation as something great. The thing is, the movie is really two in one. On…

Dragon Inn

So, this weekend I decided to watch Dragon Inn. The movie first came to my attention because Grady Hendrix did a commentary track on the Criterion release, and Mr. Hendrix is a friend of a friend of mine. I've met him a couple of times, read most of his books, and find him quite the…

Awe

Awe When I talk about emotion in movies, I usually highlight sadness as the one emotion that I most often look for in a film. If a film can make me genuinely sad, I feel that it has done something difficult and deserves some level of praise. There is one other emotion that I look…

I Am the Law

Picking up the Pieces The comic Judge Dredd was made into a film once before as an action vehicle for Sylvester Stallone in the 90s. It's not a complete disaster of a film, but it's surprisingly flat, carries a lot of 90s cheese, and has a shocking amount of Rob Schneider in it. It never turned into…